Para to Vaikhari: The spiritual connection!

 

During Wednesday’s session another point that was briefly discussed was regarding stages of speech. I had forgotten to mention it in yesterday’s post but one of the sakhis asked a question that brought this issue back to the forefront of my mind. She asked whether the Marathi word Sant had a connection with the English word saint. 

If you look at the etymology of these two words one finds no connection upfront. Sant is derived from the Sanskrit word सत् (sat) which means Truth or Reality. Those that are grounded in Truth or have realized that God is the ultimate Truth are called Sant ( संत). The English word Saint finds its origin from the Latin root word sanctum which means holy. 

Now sat and sanctum have no connection at first glance. Yet as I was answering her question it flashed in my mind that ultimately where did sat or sanctum arise from?

 Where does any word arise from?

Where did the earliest word arise from?

Where and how did language evolve? 

What existed before words? 

For that we need to dig deeper. Thoughts are the precursors of words. Thoughts are words in invisible form. Yet very often they have a form. We will discuss this later. 

Let’s look at the sanatan dharma ( Hindu) theory regarding origin of spoken words.

In Hindu philosophy God is designated as Naada Bramha नाद ब्रम्ह ! Sound is considered as the first manifestation of the Invisible or Unmanifest Divinity. From this primordial sound arose not only thoughts and words but the entire creation. This nada bramha consists of three syllables A, U and M. All words are synthesized from a combination of one or more of these syllables. The Mandukya Upanishad gives an elaborate explanation of the significance of the three syllables.

The interface of the Pure Divinity( naada bramha ) and human intelligence is very very subtle. Those who have lived a very pious life are able to connect their intellect with a higher level of awareness and through that with the universal ethereal naada bramha. Thus the super human cosmic sound can be accessed through deep meditation. 

For others who have not lived a life of austerity, the intellect is clouded with impurities. There is “noise pollution” there. Imagine a scenario where your friend has called over the phone to convey some important information. Your TV is on full volume. You cannot hear a word of what she is saying on the phone. And you don’t have the presence of mind to turn off the TV or you are too involved in what’s going on TV. You instead hang up the phone saying we will meet up tomorrow to discuss, I can’t hear you right now. So either it is an issue of the instrument’s precision and setting to collect data or some extraneous factor(s) hindering the data collection. 

That line of communication between the divine and human is the Paraa Vani परा वाणी. It is the subtlest of subtle forms of speech. All the Vedas are transcribed from the messages received by the pure souls( rishis)  thousands of years back through this Paraa vaani. The authorship of these texts that carry philosophy as well as science, commerce, arts is rightfully attributed to the “shruti”( Heard from the Unmanifest Source). 

Imagine your email. You got a notification that there is a new email in the inbox. The inbox reads 1 New Email but the message is not downloaded. That phase is the Paraa vaani. There is a signal but it has not been transcribed into your brain. When it gets transcribed it enters the stage of Pashyanti. पश्यंती. Now you see the words clearly. If Pashyanti questions Paraa, hey who has sent this message, Paraa has no answer. It keeps silent. 

Now Pashyanti processes the message and reveals the content with its meaning. You become aware of not just that there is a message but also what the message is about . That stage is madhyamaa. मध्यमा. Madhyamaa is the communications director. She can make the call whether the message is important to be revealed to others or not, when to share it, how to share it. 

If Madhyamaa wants to know the authenticity of a message that has arrived she checks back with Pashyanti. Who sent it? 

If it came via Paraa, pashyanti says “ I don’t know, I don’t know”( नेती नेती) !! Paraa couldn’t tell me the source! 

But not all messages come through a source beyond paraa. Some may arise from pashyanti. Here madhyamaa may get the answer about the “sender” of the message. 

You can look at Paraa as fortress that is controlled by someone who is one step below Parabramha. A pure soul who is using a human body as an instrument. He or she delivers the divine message “as is” down to Pashyanti. 

Pashyanti is at one level below Paraa. Here there is a traffic controller who also enjoys some autonomy. If this person is a faithful servant of God and he/ she writes his/ her own message( instead of receiving it from Paraa) that message remains in line with the rule of God. This is the stage where many saints are before they evolve to a higher level of self realization.

If instead that person(ego) in charge of pashyanti is one who has his/ her own will and way, well meaning or not, and certainly not recognizing the higher authority of a universal Godhead, then the message will reflect that personal agenda. It will lack universal application and inclusivity.

Madhyamaa receives the message and makes the call whether it is suitable to be made public or semi confidential or entirely confidential. If public, it hands it over to her assistant Vaikhari to circulate it. Vaikhari uses the instruments of tongue or pen ( or sometimes other visible gestures) and completes the assigned job. If it was semi confidential Vaikhari calls a closed door meeting and shares the information with the select committee. 

Madhyamaa has autonomy to check a wrong message coming from Pashyanti. In a densely ignorant person she is completely enslaved by Pashyanti and due to lack of filter the message gets spilled out through Vaikhari. Thus the ignorance of Pashyanti trickles down uninhibited to Vaikhari in such a person.

A person who is newly introduced to spiritual awareness starts to recognize the thoughts at Madhyamaa level and begins to exercise his/ her will to force the wrongful thoughts out and permit only the good ones to find external expression. I will talk a bit more about this in another post. This is how and where spirituality is tied into the person’s reform, growth and health at all levels. As if daylight slowly begins to enter the mind and dispel previous ignorance. The entire passage between Paraa to Vaikhari progressively gets cleaned up and illuminated. Becomes free of corruption and ignorance. In Muktabai’s words: shuddha dnyaan tyaachyaa mukhi. Like drinking spring water at its origin. It is the purest you can get.

Now let’s go back to sant and saint. Paraa received a message from Nada Bramha indicating ‘Pure’. It passed it down to its trusted team of Pashyantis spread across different parts of the world. The pashyanti in India jotted it down as sat. Another one across the oceans jotted it as sanctum. Later as language was developed from the pashyanti in each geographical area it relied on the existing bank of such root words to form more words for daily practical transactions. The Latin language processed a word denoting a pure or holy person as saint by drawing upon its root word sanctum. Sanskrit coined the word sant by drawing upon sat. The common people who started using these words in practice had no clue about the common “ancestor” or ‘origin’ of the Latin people and the people in the Indus Valley. 

 A slight digression from the discussion, I am reminded of a discovery that struck me 2 years back when I visited Monument Valley in Utah. I was wearing a saree from Odisha that had woven firbi motifs on it. These motifs are ‘traditional’ for the tribal community in Odisha. The same motifs are ‘traditional’ for the native tribes in Utah. From the carpet, upholstery, bedcovers and lamp shades in the hotel we stayed, to the furniture and woven goods displayed in the native tribes village, these firbi motifs were ubiquitous. What and how would these tribal communities know about their counterparts in remote regions of India? The native tribal elder woman who sat weaving in the hut that day pointed her finger up to the sky when I showed her the motifs on my saree. SAME GOD INSPIRES !! 

For a student of spirituality it is imperative to start searching for the origins of their thoughts. Are they arising from the ego controlling the pashyanti or are they influenced by teachings of an evolved person( whether past or present) or in some instances are they “ inspirations” trickling down directly from the Paraa? 

Remember, as you go higher and higher the intellect becomes identified with the concept of Vasudev Kutumbakam !! All creation is one family! The family of God! 

Conversely, the lower intellect only identifies with a single physical body or with limited individuals that it recognizes as related to this body in some way. As you can imagine this is where all problems arise in the society. 

Words coming directly from the Supreme Lord in the form of any holy text in any part of the world is to be studied with a pure intellect. Literature passed down from saints from any part of the world must be studied with the understanding of the lives they lived to understand the integrity of the source. Once you are convinced of the reliability of the source, you must process their guidelines with faith. Be prepared to face your own hurdles in the journey and get first hand experience of the ‘helping hand’ that lifts you out of a ditch when you fall. The hand is not always seen. You have to trust your intuition here more than your physical sense organs. 

Imagine your city is supplying really clean water to each household. But your pipes are rusted and clogged with sediments and impurities. Neither are you getting clean water through those pipes nor is there a force to the water. And you blame the city for it! 

Our internal plumbing that transmits Nada Bramha from Paraa to Pashyanti to Madhyamaa and finally what comes out of our mouth or pen needs to be kept clean with regular service. These gateways within need to be supervised and guarded by trusted keepers. 

Holy words are pure. In fact Holy Words are God Himself. But our instruments need to be purified first to understand the Word! 

Saree is a pure linen weave with jamdani motifs on pallu.